EPIC 3-RACE DAY REWARDS BRITISH 470 WOMEN WITH GOLD, AND CONFIRMS 3-WAY BATTLE FOR 470 MEN MEDALS

16 Aug 2016

After patiently waiting to complete the opening series of the 470 Men and Women event, today turned out to be a thrilling three-race Tuesday, with medals confirmed in both the 470 Men and Women events.

The breeze ranged from 12-14 knots from the south-west, in a much more consistent delivery compared to previous days. Who would break away in the three demanding back to back races, which saw aggressive form around the race track?

Report updated after protest hearings on Tuesday evening:

Women’s Two Person Dinghy - 470

Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR) had come into Rio 2016 intent on avenging their missed opportunity for gold in 2012, when a 1 point difference awarded them silver and New Zealand’s Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie gold. The Brits didn’t start quite as they intended, but equally they didn’t put a foot wrong – slow and sure-footed was their approach, as they built up from a 6th overall on race day 1 to take the lead from race 5.

Today their four years of preparation since London 2012 paid off in a golden performance, as they extended their lead from 4 points after 7 races, to a gold medal winning 20 points after the 10th race of the opening series. Mills/Clark secured a scorecard of 3,2,3 which put them in an unassailable position. Aleh/Polly fought the day of their lives in an awe-inspiring delivery of two races wins and a 4th place to climb the leaderboard to 2nd overall, up from 7th at the start of the day. A threatening assault on the British pair, but it was too late for the Kiwis to bring a halt to the Mills/Clark dominance. So, whilst in theory the job is done and gold is theirs, in practice Mills/Clark need to start and finish Wednesday’s medal race without penalty to seal gold.

In astonishment after racing, Mills said, “It’s disbelief, I didn’t trust Joe, our coach, that he got the points right and it took a while, it still hasn’t sunk in! You try not to let it affect you too much, but we knew if we beat all our main rivals in that last race we would be guaranteed the gold.

“That obviously goes through your head a bit, especially as the wind started to die and it got a bit more wacky. Tensions were high but I’m absolutely shocked, stunned and so relieved. We need to not mess up, be solid and just get round the course.”

The battle will now unfold for silver and bronze, with all but one of the same ten teams that started today in the medal race hunt. An escalation on performance from Poland’s Agnieszka Skrzypulec/Irmina Gliszczynska pitches them into the medal race in 10th overall, usurping Chile’s Nadja Horwitz/Sofia Middleton who end their Rio 2016 Olympic campaign just 1 point off the medal race line-up.

In the hunt for silver and bronze medals are any of the teams placed 2nd through to 7th, with just an 11 point divide between them all, so the medal race challenge for a podium finish is wide open.

Whilst out of the hunt for medals, Poland’s Skrzypulec/Gliszczynska are experts at winning medal races, having done so at both the 2016 470 Worlds and 2016 470 Europeans, so their moment of glory to win a race in Rio may yet come.

The 470 Women’s Medal Race is scheduled to take place on the Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf) course at 1300 hours local time and will be broadcast live on television.

A remarkable battle for the medals in the 470 men will feature a three-team shoot out on Wednesday,which will be anything but straightforward.

Today’s three races didn’t change the leaderboard top three, but did shuffle up the points and order. Remaining firmly in first overall are Croatia’s Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic from a solid 8,6,3 scorecard. The partnership is the only team to hold all-top ten race results, and sit on an 11 point advantage over Greece’s Panagotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis. The Greeks went into today in third overall, on a 7 point deficit to Aussies Mathew Belcher/Will Ryan, but turned that around to now hold a 2 point advantage from a superb scorecard of 2,2,2.

Australia’s Belcher/Ryan will have their work cut out for the gold medal, and may have to decide whether a focus on silver will be their medal race goal.

The 470 Men’s Medal Race is scheduled to take place on the Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf) course at 1400 hours local time and will be broadcast live on television.